email versus social media

Email Marketing & Automation Marketing Infographics Social Media & Influencer Marketing

Email Versus Social Media

Douglas Karr Last Updated: Friday, June 19, 2015

1 minute read

This well-detailed infographic from HostPapa provides more insight into how each medium – email or social media – should be utilized rather than whether one is a substitute for the other. They’re simply not. You should not be doing one or the other – you should be focused on doing both effectively.

75% of all adults express email is their preferred communication method
Even among the 18-29 age group, email trumps social for commercial usage

While the infographic promotes email marketing as the winner, I don’t believe there should be a winner. They’re two types of mediums with very different opportunities. Email is a push medium where a company can send a message to a recipient when they’d like to. Social is a pull medium where you put the message out and hope that someone reads and responds (or shares).

My personal opinion is that no company should be applying resources in social media without having an effective email program first. This way… as prospects find you on social media and subscribe to your email, you can push them a message down the road that drives them to a conversion.

Douglas Karr Last Updated: Friday, June 19, 2015

1 minute read

Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of the Martech Zone and CEO of DK New Media. Douglas has helped dozens of successful MarTech startups, has assisted in the due diligence of over $5 bil in Martech acquisitions and investments, and continues to assist companies in implementing and automating their sales and marketing strategies. Douglas is an internationally recognized digital transformation and MarTech expert and speaker. Douglas is also a published author of a Dummie's guide and a business leadership book.

It all started as a book club.

Yes, I’m serious. I started my work on the web more than two decades ago. My first site was Helping Hand, which curated the best sites from around the web to help people with their computers and navigate resources on the Internet. Years later, I sold the domain to a company that helped folks quit smoking, one of my first big contracts.

I began blogging on Blogger and waxed poetic about everything from politics to Internet tools. I was all over the place and mostly wrote for myself – without much of an audience. I belonged to a Marketing Book club in Indianapolis that quickly grew out of control. Over time, I discovered that more and more of the group were coming to me for technology advice. The combination of my technology background and my business and marketing acumen was in high demand as the Internet rapidly changed the industry.

After reading Naked Conversations, I was motivated to better brand and control the content on the site. I also wanted more control over the look and feel of my blog, so I moved to my domain in 2006 and built my first WordPress site. Since I was focused on marketing technology, I didn’t want the domain with my name to get in the way, so I moved the site (painfully) to its new domain in 2008 where it’s grown ever since.

The Martech Zone is owned and operated by DK New Media, LLC, a company I started in 2009. After working with virtually every major online marketing department in my tenure at ExactTarget and launching Compendium, I knew there was a great demand for my expertise and guidance within such a complex industry.

DK New Media oversees my consulting, publications, podcasts, workshops, webinars, and speaking opportunities. Highbridge, my agency with two other partners, helps companies maximize their investment in sales, marketing, and related products. We offer integration, migration, training, strategic consulting, and custom development.

Thank you so much for your support over the years!

Douglas Karr
CEO, DK New Media